Study: Sterling airport, business partnership feasible

Consultant recommends on-site fuel storage to attract more planes

The future prospects for Sterling Municipal Airport to pair with a fixed-base operator (FBO) is sky high as long as it sees a few improvements, according to a drafted report released Tuesday night.

Sterling City Council heard the results of a study conducted over the past nine months to determine whether the city should attract an FBO – a business that's granted rights to provide services at an airport – to make its airport more competitive.

Michael Dye, the consultant for the FBO, said he was skeptical at first, but is now confident the airport can begin to “attract some folks.” The airport finished a runway renovation this year to stretch its length to 5,200 feet, but Dye said now was the time to continue improvements.

“The consultants believe that Sterling Airport seems to be at an important crossroad. On one hand, the recent capital investment of $4.5 million has brought much needed improvements to its runway and its infrastructure,” Dye said, adding that the extension attracts larger and more advanced aircraft. “On the other hand, if growth and development of the airport's base of users are an objective of either city or (Economic Development Committee) officials ... (their) collective focus must now be on service.”

The study compared SMA to 13 other area airports in terms of conditions, services and popularity and squared up positively; it has the highest base aircraft population (34) of any airport within 40 miles, holding almost a third of the area's 106 planes.

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But the biggest asset missing, Dye stressed, was on-site fuel storage. SMA has one truck that holds 2,000 gallons of aviation gasoline and another that hold 1,000 gallons of jet fuel. Dye said on-site storage would give the city better control of the quality and pricing of gasoline, which links directly to revenue.

The airport should also look into providing aircraft maintenance, he added, which would give aviators access to a much-needed service in an area that provides few competitors.

But what SMA shouldn't pursue – at least not without further research – is an emphasis on flight training. Mayor Heather Brungardt mentioned that Northeastern Junior College had expressed interest in adding additional programs to its curriculum.

Dye said it was too costly to provide, as it requires expensive resources and a continuous base of users, but Brungardt wondered if it was worth pursuing if the classes fed into it.

While NJC could look into how that would work, he said, he claimed that several smaller schools across the country have disappeared, leaving serious training airports in Florida, Arizona and California.

But according to the study, which outlined several pricing options, some of these changes could take a significant chunk of the city's revenue losses away from airport operations. Even if the city provides a $55,000 subsidy to the FBO, in one example, the city saves $148,000 over the next five years.

The airport, Dye said, would have to sell 120,000 to 150,000 gallons of fuel annually to stay competitive and find businesses who can make those profit margins work.

“We want to talk to people who want to do this: ‘Do you think you can do this? And if you think you can do it, how would you do it?' "I think it's possible,” Dye assured the council. “If you can price your fuel at a point where it's competitive in the region ... there are some airplanes you can attract. I don't think 120,000 gallons is unreasonable.”

The good news is that the economic market for airports is improving after taking a blow in 2008. Dye said most of the corporate traffic to these airports isn't from “pleasure riders,” but businesses that need a way to move quickly across the country.

But in order to take advantage of the improving markets, the city would have to take a handful of steps, such as getting the OK for a subsidy, finding a fuel supplier and developing a business marketing plan.

City Manager Joe Kiolbasa stressed that the report was a draft and that the council would have another session in late January to discuss a plan.

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